1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a system for packaging a flexible web, in particular a textile web, which is positioned in zigzag-form loops, according to the preamble of claim 1.
2. Prior Art
EP 0 062 753 B and EP 0 778 236 A disclose a system of the type mentioned in the introduction in the case of which a flexible web, in particular a textile web, is positioned in zigzag-form loops and an arrangement of web loops is thus formed. The resulting web-loop arrangements are stacked manually and packaged into a packaging container and then processed further in the textile industry. For this purpose, the web-loop arrangements have to be stacked manually in a packing shaft, that is to say they have to be transferred manually into the packaging shaft by operators, and an arrangement of web loops is thus formed, via push-off plates. The operations of determining the number of web loops per arrangement and of separating the web loops in a precise and defined manner between the respectively bottom and top planes are difficult to automate on account of the random positioning of the textile web loops and of the sensitivity of the web-loop arrangements to pressure. Such web-loop arrangements are generally difficult to handle since they are subjected to a high level of internal stressing at the folds and thus tend to deform easily because, at the folds, the web tries to return into the straightened-out position again. The operator thus lines the packing shaft with a paper sheet prior to the first web-loop arrangement being introduced. Once the desired web length has been achieved, in the first instance, the group as a whole has the paper sheet wrapped around it and this paper sheet is fixed with adhesive tape in order that the web-loop arrangements do not come apart. It is only then that the group as a whole can be removed from the packing shaft and deposited in a packaging container.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,321,512 B discloses a system which is intended for packaging a flexible web positioned in zigzag-form loops and in the case of which a vertically fed length of material is cut into individual webs in the first instance, these webs then being positioned together in loops and the web loops being jointly introduced vertically into a container which is fitted over them. No indication is given here of the possibility of using the system to form, on a horizontal bearing panel, a web-loop arrangement of predeterminable magnitude which could then, moreover, be transferred into a packaging container.